Suspension of Disbelief - A Political Romantic Comedy!?Jalal Jonroy / April 1 - 2007 / New YorkTheater and film experience need audience's friendly participation including the “Suspension of Disbelief.” The rules of ‘believability/credibility” varies according to the different genres: tragedy, drama, comedy, satire, suspense, thriller, epic, science fiction… Comedy needs a more generous doze of audience's ‘Suspension of Disbelief’. Satire needs even more. What maybe unbelievable in drama would not only be desirable and acceptable but absolutely necessary in comedy, satire and farce! Think of the films of Max Brothers, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin to Jacques Tati, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, JohnCleese and Monty Python. (And recall Molière and Shakespeare'scomedic plays.) For example in David & Layla (2006): David fallsoff the ladder off Layla's high balcony without breaking a bone!Then, not only does David get immediately revived by Layla’s 'Kissof Life' but he also gets an involuntary boner! This happens around27 mins into the film.The audience 'believes' this incredible scene because of the magic of cinema's sight and sound. The plot has been pre-designed and the characters have been carefully drawn and developed - propelling the escalating 'sex/love' obsession for the 'unobtainable, untouchable' lovely, mysterious Layla - to make this unlikely scene to be totally convincing!Most films and plays wisely stick with one style, say Chekhovian or Bergmanesque dramas, with sprinklings of believable comedy arising organically out of characters' real conflicts & situations.

My Left Foot (1989) is an excellent dramatic film with a few brilliant comedic scenes- funny scenes and witty dialog necessary for "comic relief."

Most playwrights & filmmakers do not or cannot mix genres/styles. The same holds true for creator artists, say musicians, composers and painters.

Shakespeare was a master of tragedy, drama, romance and comedy. Yet he

seldom mixed more than two genres. His most memorable classics are powerful one genre: Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet... But his Romeo and Juliet is a romantic tragedy as in the tradition of classic love stories: 'Shirin O Farhad' (Kurdish & Persian), 'Layla and Majnun' (Arabic), 'Veer-Zaara' (Indian)...Novice writers/directors are advised to avoid mixing genres. Both MartinScorsese and Francis Coppola excel in dramas but they have not yetreally succeeded (outside festivals) in mixing drama with comedy thatwork for general audiences. (Scoresese's The King of Comedy (1983)with De Nero comes close to succeeding.)Comedy vs. DramaAny honest professional writer, director, actor or film critic will confirm that comedy is much harder to pull off than drama. Drama has a wider, more forgiving margin of error. Ifcomedy fails, everyone will immediately notice! Comedy is a much finer, moreexacting mix of dramatic and cinematic (or theatrical) arts and crafts. Comedy ismuch more demanding to write, direct and act. Yet comedy is not favored by filmfestivals, film critics, and intellectuals; not even by Hollywood's Oscars! Irreverentsatire is even less favored by 'serious' festivals and film critics. Unless thecomedy or satire is by a brand label like Woody Allen or Pedro Almodovar orMonty Python! Or, by dead masters: Chaplin, Keaton, Max Brothers, Molière, and MoliéreJacques Tati!Romantic ComedyA Romantic Comedy is even tougher to pull off. People are wise about sensual, sexual love. If the chemistry between the lovers on the silver screen is not believable, everyone will turn off. You might as well kiss your play or film 'goodbye!' A Romantic Comedy needs experienced, highly sensitive and fast-witted, versatile physical actors with superb clear voice for precisely-timed line delivery. It also requires the use of specific cinematic crafts. For examples: sensitive cinematography, sensual lighting, tender music score, subtle make up, costume, production design, ambience sound design, editing.... Too much or insensitive/inappropriate use of any of these arts and crafts will render a romantic comedy into a kitschy, melodramatic soap opera! In spite of the real life differences between the lead actors and the vast difference between the story’s lead characters, the impossible romance of David & Layla works on screen. The script is written and directed so that at the beginning the romance looks awkward and most unlikely to succeed. Yet, by the end of the story, at the end of the lead characters' arcs, everyone believes in the love/romance between David & Layla.Mixed genresChoosing a single genre film (or play), say a drama, decides the look, feel and tone of the film, covering every element from the opening credits to the end, even affecting the ending credits roll: film stock- and whether to use color or black & white -, camera strategy/movement, choice of lenses, filters, lightning, locations, weather, production color palette and design, costume design, pacing, editing style, sound design, music score...and the casting of actors!Already that is a huge challenge to put together successfully. French directorClaude Lelouch who wrote & directed the celebrated love story -A Man and a Woman (1966) - is renowned for saying, "Tourner un film unfilm, c'est un miracle!"- Making any film is a miracle! (I had the honor ofmeeting the 69 year-old director and help out with interview translation forhis latest film at Hamptons Int’l Film Fest. I asked, 'Is it true?' « Oui,absolument ! J’ai fait 40 films. Alors j’ai fait 40 miracles ! »Claude LelouchMixing two or three genres requires the judicious mixing of all the above elements - different for each genre. That is playing with fire! That is why most writers and directors (should!) choose one genre.Most plays and films are mostly one genre, one tone. Audiences are readily receptive to one genre films. But they are uncomfortable or get confused with films that change tones. Unless the story and characters grab them and the tone changing is done with style!In the entire history of cinema, there are less than a dozen films that succeed in mixing drama, romance and comedy!The first successful mixed-genre American film is Charlie Chaplin’s silentCity Lights (1931.) The second is by the celebrated American auteurwriter/director Preston Sturges- the classic Sullivan's Travels (1941.) Bothfilms are classics - well worth re-watching. Recently, Roberto Benigni’sVita è bella, La aka “Life Is Beautiful” (1997) is another example that succeedsin mixing three genres. Some American Jews were offended and boycotted theilm for mixing humor with the Holocaust. Yet the Jerusalem Film Fest gave itBest Picture Award, and the Jerusalem Mayor bestowed the director withJerusalem city's Medal of Honor.

Postino, Il (1994) aka "The Postman" is a subtle mixture of genres- two parallel love stories, drama, and a bit of culture/poetry and politics. Hollywood is reluctant to make such "complex" movies. Yet American audiences enjoyed this British-directed Italian film as much as European and international audiences. The film won 3 Oscars, including Best Foreign film.

White Sheik" is an unforgettable mixed genres masterpiece- a drama-comedy

of a moral tale of marital love vs. fantasy love!And of course, many of the incomparable Pedro Almodovar’s films succeedbrilliantly in mixing comedy or satire with drama and love- for example mixingAids-infected tragic Penelope Cruze’s character with humor and love inTo-do sober mi Madre (1999) aka "All About My Mother."Federico FelliniFor mixed genres films to succeed, the differing and precise acting techniques and arts and crafts of cinema - covering the whole range of drama, romance and comedy - need to be prudently mixed. Too much or too rapid or too slow of mixing of the different, often necessarily opposing filmmaking elements - as in composing music or cooking - could render the resulting film (score, or dish or cocktail!) to be unpalatable!David & Layla- A Political Romantic Comedy?

David & Layla mixes romantic comedy with a bit of drama, history, ethnic culture and politics of the complex background of the Middle East plighted by the incendiary Jewish Muslim conflict.

Aptly dubbed as a 'Political Romantic Comedy', David & Layla was first invited into Official Competition at Hamptons IFF "Conflict Resolution"; then a "Human Rights" film fest co-sponsored by HRW- Humans Rights Watch of NY. The next sixteen festivals were regular internationals. Then, the film got invited into Official Competition by three "Love", "Romantic" and "Amour" international film festivals!

The film is invited to Verona Love Film festival, 26 April- 5 May 2007. David & Layla shall be featured in Panorama as re-interpretation in a different city (New York in this film) of the original star crossed lovers in Verona: Shakespeare's city of

Romeo & Juliet! In all tests and festivals in America and abroad, the film consistently succeeds with a variety of audiences- from NY & LA to Sao Paulo/Brazil & Stockhom, from Hamptons & Florida to Human Rights, and from New York Makor Jewish culture center to Avignon & Paris, and to London & Berlin KFF...Everywhere David & Layla is embraced and received with constant, engaging laughter and even frequent applauses during the film's screening. The bigger and the more diverse the audience, the more enthusiastic the reception.To have successfully pulled off this complex, sensitive Jewish-Muslim political romantic comedy by a first time immigrant writer/producer/director in New York was not easy. Perhaps in time, this ethnic, new immigrant radical film will be appreciated as a landmark.

Fassbinder, Almodovar…rather than the above-named 'serious/drama' directors.Some have suggested a Kurdish Woody Allen… Oh please! Allen's recentfilms are recycled, irrelevant stuff for his usual fans! Woody Allen has set upan auto assembly line to produce a film a year! He seems to be obsessedwith auteur fame based on quantity, not originality. So he lives an isolated,perpetual movie-making life, cut of from the real world we live in.Did I like Woody write myself to be a witty, loveable lead character, then play myself in the film and have the chutzpah to write and direct young pretty actresses - half his age - to fall in love with him because he's funny and quotes classic philosophers!? (Could this explain why Woody's young adopted child/daughter fell for him and married him?)* Jalal Jonroy is the director of David & Layla